


You Make Me Want Things I Can't Have

by actualbabe



Series: Tumblr Dialogue Prompts! [5]
Category: New Girl
Genre: F/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, coffee shop AU, meet cute, this had the potential to be angsty but instead it was just cute fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 11:17:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13247106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/actualbabe/pseuds/actualbabe
Summary: Jess is a barista for a pretty busy coffee shop, so she sees a lot of cute guys when she’s working. But Nick had stood out to her from the moment she first took his order. He has that Walter Matthau in Grumpy Old Men look that’s totally her type. There’s something about his old-man clothes and scruffy facial hair that makes her all kinds of twirly. It had taken a while to get used to his less-than-friendly nature, but he’d eventually warmed up to her and she started to look forward to seeing him stop by with his laptop to enjoy a black coffee while he worked on the draft of his so-called Zombie Novel.a coffee shop meet cute!





	You Make Me Want Things I Can't Have

This is quite possibly the most embarrassing day of Jess’ life. Which is saying something, because if there’s one thing that Jessica Day is good at, it’s making a fool of herself.

She’s a barista for a pretty busy coffee shop, so she sees a lot of cute guys when she’s working. But Nick had stood out to her from the moment she first took his order. He has that Walter Matthau in  _Grumpy Old Men_  look that’s totally her type. There’s something about his old-man clothes and scruffy facial hair that makes her all kinds of twirly. It had taken a while to get used to his less-than-friendly nature, but he’d eventually warmed up to her and she started to look forward to seeing him stop by with his laptop to enjoy a black coffee while he worked on the draft of his so-called  _Zombie Novel_.

Jess had _finally_  gotten up the courage to talk to him during one of her slower late-afternoon shifts and it had been so promising. They had this easy back-and-forth chemistry that she hadn’t had with someone before. There was something about the two of them that just  _clicked_. Nick told her about his job as a bartender, and they’d swapped customer service horror stories, trying to one-up each other by regaling the absurdity of white soccer moms versus the hassles of delusional drunks.

She had giggled at his jokes and he had rolled his eyes at her character impersonations. Jess had leaned on the counter and absent-mindedly twirled a lock of her hair as they bickered good-naturedly about mundane things like the validity of house keys and whether the moon landing was faked. He had smiled at her as he sipped his coffee and Jess could feel her heart beating a little faster in her chest at the simple expression. She had gone home after her shift and frantically texted her best friend Cece about the exciting development, replaying the conversation for her in an attempt to figure out if Nick was actually flirting or not.

Cece is convinced that Nick likes her, but Jess isn’t quite so sure. Jess just got out of her absolute mess of a relationship with Spencer. Maybe she’s just projecting her feelings onto some innocent customer. It’s best for everyone if she just keeps her potential feelings to herself. But she figured that a little casual flirting would still be alright.

Apparently not.

“You mean to tell me that I’ve been making you specialty lattes for the past month, and you’ve been throwing them all away because you’re  _lactose intolerant?_ ” Jess crosses her arms over her chest. Her cheeks are hot and she doesn’t need a mirror to know that she’s blushing bright red right now. It probably looks even worse against her green apron.

Nick grimaces. “Yeah, that’s about it.”

This is quite possibly the worst day of her life. Admittedly, she’s lived a very good life if this is her lowest point. But still. Just when she was starting to think that Nick might actually like her, it turns out that she’s been making an idiot of herself this whole time. She’s been reading the signals all wrong. Nick definitely doesn’t care about her, he’s just too polite to shut her down. It’s so incredibly embarrassing that Jess feels like she’s about to burst into tears right in the middle of the coffee shop and she still has another four hours of her shift left. Jess bites down on her lower lip and tries to fight off the tears that are building up in her eyes.

“Look, Jessica,” he says sympathetically. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to let it go this far.”

“What do you mean?” she asks hesitantly.

Nick sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. He rubs at his eye before dragging the hand down the side of his cheek. “I thought you were really hot but I didn’t know what to say to you. So I asked my roommates for advice but I forgot that Schmidt is a total douchebag and Winston is currently in a committed relationship with his cat. Obviously it didn’t work out exactly the way I wanted to.”

“Wait, what?”  _Surely she didn’t hear that right._

“They told me to ask you what you’d recommend but then I realized that you didn’t know I was dairy-free and at that point it was too late to take it back so I decided to just go with it and… yeah.” Nick smiles lopsidedly at her and shrugs. “Sorry.”

She regards him skeptically, trying to discern whether or not he’s telling the truth. It feels a little too good to be true. But that doesn’t stop the warm fuzzy feeling in her chest at the way he had admitted to thinking she was hot.

“You, um-” Nick ducks his head and looks at the index card covered in messy handwriting that he’s holding in his hand. “You make me want things I can’t have.”

“That’s the dumbest line I’ve ever heard.” Jess frowns.

“ _That’s what I said. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Schmidt._ ” He grumbles to himself and shoves the slip of paper into his back pocket. “Anyways. I’m sorry for the crossed signals. I should’ve known that it was all in my head or whatever.” He makes a turtleface down at his shoes.

Jess bites down on her lip.  _This is your chance!_  The little voice in the back of her head chimes in. _Go for it!_ But she hesitates for a half-second and it’s just long enough for her to lose her nerve.

“I forgive you,” she mumbles.

“Thanks.” Nick smiles at her and Jess’ heart explodes. He clears his throat nervously. “And um, can I get a small coffee?”

She nods and grabs the cup from the stack on the counter. “Cream or sugar?” she asks reflexively, even though she already knows the answer.

“Black, please.”

“A dollar ninety-eight.”

Nick pulls out his ‘wallet’ which is actually a plastic baggie with his ID and cash inside it. He hands over a ten and after Jess gives him his change he drops the five into the tip jar before stepping aside to wait over at the bar for his drink. Jess watches him go and she can’t ignore the tug in her gut at seeing him leave. So she doesn’t stop to reconsider or overthink it. She grabs the Sharpie from the counter and scribbles a message on the side of his cup.

_My friends call me Jess_

Then she writes her phone number underneath and draws a little heart beside it. She fills up the cup as quickly as she can without spilling it and sets it on the bar. “Enjoy,” she tells Nick, hoping that her face isn’t too red.

“Thanks,” he smiles at her and fits a lid on top of the cup, seemingly unaware of what she’s written. “See ya around.”

Jess gives him a little wave as he walks out the door. “See ya.”

\---

Jess gets a text message late that night, hours after she’s convinced herself that she’s made a horrible mistake and that she might as well move into a yurt on the outskirts of town and become a hermit. She sits up from where she’s curled up under a pile of blankets on her bed and opens her phone to read the message.

_[UNSAVED NUMBER - MARK AS SPAM?]_

_so i guess i wasn’t misreading the signals_

_unless this is you giving me your number as a friend_

_which is cool too_

_this is nick by the way_

She beams at the phone and types out a quick reply before she can second-guess herself.

_No, you were right ;)_

Three little dots appear on his end. Jess bites down on her lip and anxiously stares at them, willing his response to come sooner.

_cool cool cool_

_do you wanna get dinner some time?_

_or coffee but i figure you’re probably sick of that at this point_

_i could also get us free drinks at my bar if u want_

Jess smiles down at the phone screen.

_Dinner sounds good to me :)_

Nick’s response comes seconds later.

_nice_

_so how was your day?_

Jess flops back onto her mattress, the bright light of her phone illuminating her dim bedroom as she answers his text. They end up staying up until four am texting each other until Jess reluctantly has to cut off the conversation so she can actually get a little sleep before her shift in the morning.

_Gotta go, need to get *some* sleep before my shift haha_

She settles back under the covers and fights off sleep for a few more moments so she can read his reply.

_oh shit it’s really late isn’t it_

_good night_

_i’ll text you tomorrow?_

Jess smiles at the message and sleepily replies.

_Looking forward to it. Good night! :-*_

**Author's Note:**

> *jake johnson voice* lactose intol!
> 
> check me out on [tumblr](http://actualbabe.tumblr.com/)


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